YOUNG, MALE AND VOTING REFORM

Once, anti-establishment British youth disillusioned with mainstream politics headed left. Now many – especially young men – are turning right. What is it about Nigel Farage’s party that attracts them?

Gaby Hinsliff

JOSH IS 24 YEARS OLD AND WORKS AS A CARER. It’s not easy work, but he prefers it to his old job in a supermarket: most of his clients are elderly and “just want someone there with them, because they’re lonely”. In his spare time Josh used to be into boxing. But lately he’s got into politics instead. Like many of his gen Z contemporaries, he’s thoroughly disillusioned with the mainstream kind. “The two parties that have been in power for 100-plus years have done nothing. The economy’s a mess,” he scoffs. But if he sounds like the kind of anti-establishment young person who once rallied to the radical left, Josh’s frustration has taken him in another direction. An ardent Brexiter in his teens, who backed Boris Johnson in 2019,…

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Guardian Weekly (Digital) - 1 Issue, 14 March 2025

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